1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods for aiding traffic controllers and/or pilots. More particularly, various embodiments relate to systems and methods that track a gaze line of an eye of the user viewing the display using an eyetracker, calculate an intersection of the gaze line of the eye with the display to provide continuous feedback as to where on the display the user is looking, correlate a trace of the gaze line of the eye with elements of a situation, and infer the user's awareness of the situation by verifying that the user has looked at the elements of the situation.
2. Background Information
In transportation systems, passenger and vehicular safety is the key goal juxtaposed to the operational objective of maximum system efficiency. To achieve the twin goals of safety and efficiency, many transportation systems, such as air, rail, and ship, use human-operated control centers to manage and monitor the traffic flow.
Many computerized collision prediction programs have been developed with the objective of aiding controllers in maintaining adequate vehicle separation and avoiding collisions. These collision prediction programs exploit the untiring rigors of computer automation and have significant potential to identify potential collisions that human controllers may detect too late or even miss altogether.
A key impediment to the successful implementation of these collision avoidance programs within traffic control centers, however, has been a lack of minimally obtrusive means for the programs to communicate with the human controller while he is controlling traffic. Typically, the programs become intrusive “back-seat drivers,” warning the controller of many potential conflicts that he/she is already aware of. Given that the controller is typically fully aware of the vast majority of all the potential conflicts, the aggregate costs of his cognitive efforts to cope with warnings about the many situations he is already aware of outweigh the benefits of notifying him about the very few potential conflicts he is not aware of. Thus the potential value of using automated collision prediction programs to minimize rare near-misses and collisions is outweighed by the constant, high cognitive load placed on the controller by having to interact with the program.
Before one or more embodiments of the present teachings are described in detail, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the present teachings are not limited in their application to the details of construction, the arrangements of components, and the arrangement of steps set forth in the following detailed description or illustrated in the drawings. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.